The Young Historian
by Daphne Oso
Summary: After The Rise of Skywalker


I am a student of Naboo Historical Institute.

It was 30 years ago that the Emperor Palpatine finally fell in the epic Battle of Exegol, so when I was born, all the past glories had become history, and young people of my generation are growing up in an disappointingly boring era, with neither hero nor villain.

I think this may be the very reason why I'm so fascinated by the past, which was full of legendary figures and touching tales afloat above over mundane lives.

I have visited the splendid mausoleum of Queen Amidala, collected tales about Darth Vader, read books about the Skywalkers, and explored ruins of the First Order. But no matter what I did, history still seemed cold and lifeless, lacking the touching warmth of humanity.

Until I read something about someone lost:

"Kylo Ren (?-?) with unknown origin became Supreme Leader of the First Order after Snoke was killed by the legendary Jedi Knight Rey Skywalker, famous (or infamous) for his cruelty, mercilessness and fearsome mask, but mysteriously disappeared 1 year later. Some say he perished in an oceanic moon of Endor or lived until the Battle of Exegol, but no evidence proves his survival or doom. Until now he is still the most mysterious figure in our modern history." (_The Rise and Fall of the First Order_)

Such an important figure is confusingly obscure. Things shouldn't have been like this. Mystery leads to curiosity, and as a future historian (if not historian proper), I think it's my mission to excavate the truth beneath ashes of the past.

But the mission is much more difficult than I have imagined.

When my research began, the only useful information was just a name: Rey Skywalker. Fortunately I had heard of this name and known her survival.

But another problem emerged, unlike in the case of Kylo Ren, we knew too much about her to tell truths from rumors. She was a member of the Resistance, the last Jedi Knight, and possibly a Palpatine. Different persons had reported her whereabouts in different planets, from desert to ocean and mountains to plain.

She herself had wrote or said nothing.

So I decided to start from something certain and accessible, alias the Resistance.

My first target was Poe Dameron, the Resistance's then newly-appointed general in the Battle of Exegol, who has been a very powerful man. He was (if not is) also Rey Skywalker's friend. Unexpectedly, after extensively reading all I could find about him, in his autobiography I found something about not only Rey Skywalker, but also Kylo Ren, and the following lines especially drew my attention:

"Rey was so difficult! sometimes methought she avoided communicating with us on purpose. It seemed like that between the devilish tyrant Kylo Ren and her, a really strong link existed, but however she never let us know any detail about it. Even when I asked how she killed Snoke and escaped from him, she just said nothing. Finn once told me about Rey's vision of sharing the Sith throne with Kylo Ren, how ridiculous! I just couldn't understand her."

After reading the above, I thought it was time for me to reconsider the relationship between the two deadly enemies.

This was definitely beyond my expectation.

I was thrilled at the thought of discovering a hidden romance between the two most unlikely candidates. It must be an academic breakthrough, or at least a very touching love story!

I was too excited to think about anything else, just devoting myself wholeheartedly into the tedious research.

Then one day, two days, three days...two months later, I had been on the verge of breakdown.

Although exhausting all relevant documents in my institute's library, what I could find were just several new lines conveying no new information. Maybe the only things useful were pieces of Kylo Ren's and Rey Skywalker's images, one masked, the other blurred.

After so much time and labor, I even did not know how they looked like. What a disappointing start for my career!

But no matter how frustrated I was, reality was reality, as long as no sound evidence was found, I could not confidently declare my assumption.

Maybe any possibility of something romantic only existed in my imagination, to each other, Rey Skywalker and Kylo Ren were nothing but enemies.

Just at that time, from my mother I received a letter, merely about domestic trivia without anything significant, but containing the very "touching warmth of humanity".

This is what I could not find in historical study. It reminded me of my childhood in the sweet lakeside villa, where my father used his big warm hands to raise us up and my mother played with us three happily.

I also realized how long I had suspended the regular correspondence with my family. I just spent too much time in my fruitless research!

So I wrote back immediately, without wasting a single minute:

"Dear mother,

I'm glad that all of you are healthy and happy as ever, especially my sister who obtained her first scholarship, I'm proud of her so much.

Honestly speaking, I'm not as happy as you are recently, due to certain academic reason, or more exactly, failure. The tedious research is also the reason why I haven't written you for so long. But don't worry, I'm well now. Because I keep in mind that we should always learn from failures, just as you taught us.

Although I failed in my research, there is something more important I learn. As a future historian, I must tell truths from my fantasies, and only by doing so could I do persuasive research. As a child I was so fascinated by the romanticized past, and now I should be more realistic.

I must accept the reality that in my daily life there is no Jedi, Sith, Skywalker or the First Order.

But after the revelation, I'm still glad that father and you never ridiculed my wild childish fantasies, instead you two were so understanding that you accompanied me across the Galaxy to visit historic relics fascinating me, whether near or far. I wish to let you know that although I often complain about the uneventful live in our villa, I cherish our family dearly and am always grateful.

Again I'm untimely sentimental, maybe just as you always said, it's because I'm like my father too much.

Oh there is something interesting I want to share with you, one of the historical figures (although she should be still alive) of my research is your namesake, Rey, the legendary Rey Skywalker, in my opinion this is a rather lovely coincidence.

At last, please express my love to father and my baby sister Leia.

Your loving son

Anakin Solo

(End)


End file.
